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Saturday, June 7, 2008

Review: IRON MAN

Lets have a quick chat about Iron Man, eh?

To take a moderatly unknown superhero and create a new franchise is a grand idea that should be tried more often. Iron Man is exactly that. By taking a superhero that everyone and their mothers do not know all about, creates the chance for a story that can thrill and achieve great heights with out everyone whining that it does not flawlessly follow the comic book story arch.

Thus, Iron Man pleases everyone. In this tale of destruction and ressurection, Weapons builder Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) finds himself trapped in a terrorist out post in the middle east with only a few months to build a rocket that if built will give the Terrorists a powerful weapon that they can leave a devastating mark with. Seeing that his weapon sales plan has gone awry, Tony builds a Iron Suit and escapes, goes back to the city with his assistant Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) and his old family friend and co-worker Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), and millitary friend (Terrence Howard), and sets out becoming a superhero who wants to fix the weapon sales mistakes he has made in the past.

Many people say that Iron man is the Marvel Version of Batman. He is indeed a man with no powers, and superior intellect, but one could dare to say that he is a better hero than the latter. Iron man does not take the worlds troubles into his arms, but just sets out to fix his own and the damage they have caused.

Iron Man takes a new stance on the modern superhero film in the sense that it takes Stark about half of the movie to become Iron Man. It is a deep mental journey that we see all about Starks life and can understand and emphasize with him in all of his eccentricites, making his transformation to Iron Man somehting we all could desire and understand.

Downey Jr. was the ultimate choice for Tony Stark and could not have played the role more true to the character. His fast paced wit and dramatic acting skills keep the audience on thier feet, while many of his improv-ed lines come straight out of left field but never miss thier mark. Terrence Howard, pulls off a nice role that will hopefully be elaborated on in the sequal. He comes off as a sort of one dimensional character, whos goals never change and his chracter hardly develops. Gwenyth Paltrow is nice to see again on the big screen, pulling off a difficult role that should make women everywhere proud. She does her job as Tonys assistant well, while managing to stay sexy the whole time, but never once gives into temptation or succumbs to many of the Damsel in Distress stereotypes that plague films so often these days.

Jeff Bridges IS Obadiah Stane, Tony's old friend turned competative worker. With a beard and shaved head, Bridges is almost completely unrecognizeable, leading to the possiblity of many more twists and turns in the film. Bridges acting is smooth and cold, but rings out loudly as a solid character, no matter how underdeveloped the character may be.

John Favreau is a fantastic director and one wonders why he doesn't make every superhero movie. Each shot and sentance has meaning and nothing breaks the plot, timing, or form of the movie. Hopefully he will return for all three installemnts and the inevitable Avengers movie. Sayed Badreya has a nice little role as a terrorist which he also plays in upcoming film "You Don't Mess With The Zohan."

If any superhero film is Oscar Nomination worthy, this one is it.

By the way.... Die hard Marvel fans, stay after the credits, you won't regret it.

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